February 01, 2008

According to Ha'aretz, an advert in Wednesday's Times newspaper taken out by Independent Jewish Voices to protest Israel's genocidal campaign against Gaza is proving controversial. Apparently it's not kosher to condemn genocide when the perpetrators are Jewish.

A controversial coalition of prominent Jewish activists and academics has reignited controversy in the British Jewish community after taking out an paid advertisement in The Times thsi week calling for Israel to lift its economic blockade of the Gaza strip and accusing the state of breaching international law.

But don't worry, Anthony Julius was on hand to bring his legal mind and his own Jewish ethics to bear on the situation:

A critic of the group, lawyer and academic Anthony Julius, disputed the claim that Israel was in breach of international law.

"It is by no means unarguable that Israel is right to treat Gaza as an enemy territory. It is hard to see on what basis Israel's actions can be seen as a violation and only one or two of the signatories could grapple with issues involved."

Julius argues that the group is "fraying at the edges and has lost some of its membership. It is unable to speak with a coherent voice on any issue, such as the academic boycott of Israel."

So, there we have it. Israel can go on slaughtering the innocent racial inferiors while Jewish intellectuals argue over the "by no means unarguable". The great blood libel lawyer gets Israel off on an arguable technicality. And not only that, those Jews who believe that such serious harm to an overwhelmingly civilian population is a war crime and that it should stop, don't speak with one voice as to how it can be stopped. Apparently you have to be part of a monolith to venture an opinion on the only democracy in the Middle East.